lighting

[supernareg]

as you guys know, i will be making an L shaped aquarium to go on a desk in the corner. i'm assuming it will be about 3 feet in length on both sides. how can i light this?

dual 36" Pc's on top of each side?



note: i will be staying away from MH or T5s cause they use up too much electricity an dmom's *****in'

 

[ReefMeister2]

If you are building your own aquarium (and have the skills to do so) then I think it'd be really cool if you made your own custom light hood enclosure for it too to match the shape of the aquarium. (hanging style/not canopy)

Build it the same way as the aquarium but on a slightly smaller scale and use black acrylic/plastic or aluminum. Go with a retro PC or T5 kit (4 x 96 watt PC's should do the trick, or equivalent T5s) and a trio or quad of fans to cool it down.

If you want to go the lazy route, then two 36" JBJ light hoods with stands otta do the trick just as good; but sans the "cool factor"

Keep in mind that you'll net roughly 100 gallons with two 3-foot sections, so reinforcing/modifying the desk to support the weight of the aquarium is certainly in order.

Good luck/God Speed

LRK

 

[slavearm]

Er... T5s are much more efficient than PC... both in light output per watt, and heat generated. Might want to rethink that one.

 

[supernareg]

do T5's consume less energy?

and the tank itself will be narrow and high...and long, so it wotn be 10 gallon, i put it in a calculator and it came out to be about 10 or so gallons. it will have a nice 40 gallon sump though.

 

[slavearm]

Less or the same depending on your configuration. Either way more efficient lighting scheme, and better color, and lower temps, and more options, and cheaper bulbs, and I could go on and on.

 

[supernareg]

so 2 T5's would be enough? 1 over each side? oh and also probably 1 over sump . in the sump i'll prolly have cheato with a couple hermits and snails, (about 4-6 each). the look i'm going for is when i sit at my desk, all around me is the ocean, so its going to nice and high, maybe 12 inches, about 7-8 inches deep and 36" long (per side). it'll be a nice project.

 

[ReefMeister2]

To be precise:

An "L"-shaped tank with a length of 36" along both back walls (not front walls/huge difference) ...and 12" high x 8" wide will be exactly:
26.7 gallons

Saltwater @ 1.025 salinity weighs ~8.5 lb per gallon, so...
26.7 x 8.5 = 226.95 lb

this does not include the weight of liverock and livesand, which have significant more density than water, so...
even accounting for the displacement of water, I'd have to estimate you'll have an aquarium weighing approx. 275-300 lbs.! (NOT including the sump)


Like I said before....REINFORCE THAT DESK

 

[slavearm]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7997715#post7997715 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by supernareg
so 2 T5's would be enough? 1 over each side? oh and also probably 1 over sump . in the sump i'll prolly have cheato with a couple hermits and snails, (about 4-6 each). the look i'm going for is when i sit at my desk, all around me is the ocean, so its going to nice and high, maybe 12 inches, about 7-8 inches deep and 36" long (per side). it'll be a nice project.

You could go two total, I light my sump with 2 and it is 14" across. You can go 1 or 2 and have better light output than with the PCs. You were looking at 4x96W PC right?

You could do 4x54W T5Ho and get much better results and be able to mix and match the bulbs to get the color just right and still use less energy and have higher PAR.

I would do a BluePlus and Actinic on each side and for the sump use a 6500K GE bulb (cheap but grows cheato like mad).

If you do go T5 dont use workhorse ballasts, and get individual reflectors.

Shane